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Old 20th Mar 2008, 08:33
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Gary Lager
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: uk
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The incident at Hamburg was almost certainly a result of severe gusty wind conditions (windshear) which cannot be accounted for in textbook aircraft limits, and are hard to predict with accuracy - the crew would have complied with all the textbook limitations on landing performance and environmental conditions; It was just a hard day at the office.

For your coursework, here are some basic limitations from the Airbus A319/320/321 FCOM (Flight Crew Operating Manual):


Max Runway Slope ±2%
Max Runway Altitude 9200ft
Minimum Runway width 45m
(although there are procedures for landing on narrower runways)

Wind limits

Max crosswind (Landing) 33 G 38 KT
Max tailwind 10 KT


If Braking Action is less than 'Good', different max crosswind limits apply:

Med/Good 29 G 38 KT
Med 25 KT
Med/Poor 20 KT
Poor 15 KT
Unreliable 5 KT

Wind limits for automatic landing

Max Headwind 30 KT
Max Crosswind 20 KT
Max Tailwind 10 KT

Environmental limits for T-O/Landing:


min temp -52C at 9200' amsl increasing to -45C at sea level and below
max temp 55C at sea level and below reducing to 35C at 9200' amsl


Required runway length for landing is a very involved subject - landing performance is dependant on a large number of factors: most significantly weight, wind and runway friction (dry/wet/slippery surface). Regulations also require the application of various margins on top of the basic 'textbook' minimum measured landing distance.

To put some ballpark limits out there, actually stopping in less than 1000m would be difficult, and considering the margins required I would be looking very closely at the performance calculations if I had to land on less than 1600m.

A runway longer than 2500m ought to present no problems for landing, except in the event of systems failure (e.g. flaps/brakes) or contamination (snow/slush/standing water).

Hope this helps
Gary Lager is offline